


We Are Only Getting Better

by GRINtelligencer



Category: ANBU Legacy, Naruto
Genre: ANBU Legacy - Freeform, F/M, Functional Non-standard Couples, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, future speculation fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:41:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23224957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GRINtelligencer/pseuds/GRINtelligencer
Summary: Kurenai's menfolk finally return from a long mission. A speculation on this couple's possible future.Set in the ANBU Legacy AU.
Relationships: Namiashi Raidou/Shiranui Genma, Yuuhi Kurenai/Namiashi Raidou/Shiranui Genma
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18





	We Are Only Getting Better

**Author's Note:**

> This oneshot is based in Legacy-verse, which is an excellent AU by Kilerkki, Nezumiko, DK, and Gunmetal, honestly go read it, not only because it is one of the best collections of fic you will find but also because this oneshot won’t make a lick of sense otherwise. 
> 
> I actually have a larger fic in the works for Legacy-verse, involving Ryouma, a groundhog day mechanic, and a lot of feels but when that got bogged down in plot I wrote this as a sort of vacation from it. This is meant to be around three years out from Legacy canon and was mostly an excuse to guess at what everyone’s favorite threesome-to-be might be like as an actual long term couple. I had a lot of fun with this, I might even do some more oneshots exploring this couple’s possible dynamic.
> 
> The title is from Joshua Radin’s ‘We Are Only Getting Better’, which happens to be on the ANBU Legacy OST 2 as Genma’s song. It felt right for this fic.
> 
> Un-betaed, all mistakes are my own, I am very rusty of the details of this world.

Kurenai felt the faint flicker of familiar chakra on the roof and smiled to herself, one hand going out to put the apartment’s kettle back on the stove. It had been a quiet two weeks without either Genma or Raidou, she had missed them more than she wanted to admit.

When she had done that first mission with them she’d concluded that ANBU were a special kind of crazy but it was a crazy she’d become used to over the last three years. Being in a relationship with two ANBU captains certainly kept things interesting most of the time, enough so that lulls when they were both away could ring hollow and empty sometimes.

Not that her boys minded if she kept herself occupied while they were gone, they were too pragmatic to mind that she sometimes saw other people, after all, she had kept her room in the family house for a reason. After so long together they knew where they stood, one night stands were one thing, the three of them were something else altogether.

When Genma had given up his bachelor loft for an apartment that was big enough for the three of them he had insisted on dragging both of them to every place he was looking at. He’d asked them what they thought of each place, seeming to want something that worked for them as much as him. Between Genma’s missions, Raidou’s missions, and her own work demands at Intel it took them several months to find somewhere they could all agree on. After all, it had to be somewhere with enough room for all of them, her wardrobe, Raidou’s plants, and Genma’s cats. This sunny flat on a top floor had been a surprise to find at a reasonable rate and she had to admit, the deaf downstairs neighbor was a large bonus. Sometimes it was easy to forget a sound-damping jutsu in the… well, heat of the moment.

It might have been only Genma’s name on the lease but from the very first day he was firm in his conviction that the apartment belonged to all three of them. They did, in all fairness, tend to spend most nights there, she had noticed over time that she spent less and less time in her old rooms and most of her favorite gear had migrated to the apartment. She had debated giving up her rooms to one of the younger family cousins for a bit but decided against it, she did sometimes drift away from the boys for a little, she liked having her space when she needed a break from ANBU level insanity.

Raidou had also kept his room at ANBU headquarters, although it also stood empty most of the time. Sometimes when one or both of them limped back from a mission they would hole up there together for a night. They claimed it was when one of them was too tired to make the trip home but she suspected it was equally often when they just needed to work something left over from the mission out of their system and they didn’t want to get her caught in the middle of it.

She was reasonably sure she could take whatever that fallout was but she understood a boundary when she saw it. Some things they wanted to leave with ANBU and she could respect that.

Last night had been one of those nights, teams Six and Twelve had returned back with a bang at midday, more than half had been immediately claimed by the medics and the remainder of the teams had gone straight into debriefs with Intel. 

One downside of the three of them being an open secret was that she was now always exempt from any debrief with team Six or Twelve, so she still didn’t know exactly what had taken two ANBU teams to pull off. With both Raidou’s hammer of a team  _ and _ Genma’s sneaker team on it the mission must have been quite the sight.

One of her co-workers had been courteous to slip her the information that both her menfolk were likely to be in debriefs for the rest of the day so she hadn’t been surprised that neither had come home that night. All too likely they’d been so tired once Intel released them that they’d just staggered back to Raidou’s room and fallen asleep before they remembered to send her a message that they weren't coming.

She was familiar enough with post mission exhaustion that she sympathized.

The whistle of the kettle brought her back to the present with a start, she turned off the stove and cast the ceiling a worried look. Why hadn’t Genma come in?

Going to the window she climbed onto the window seat to use both hands to open the window that Raidou was always saying he was going to fix one of these days. From his spot on a pillow Genma’s calico opened one yellow eye and regarded her barefully. Ignoring him Kurenai leaned out the window, breathing deep.

Cigarette smoke. She sighed, pulling her head back inside.

“He always says he quit.” she told the cat. Then again, Genma’s ‘quitting smoking’ only tended to last until a particularly stressful mission came along, then his uniform would mysteriously carry the scent again.

Unconcerned that his owner might be in distress Dango gave a long stretch, showing off wickedly sharp claws, then settled back on his pillow.

Kurenai bit her lip, torn between finishing making tea and going out to the roof. He would come inside when he was ready but then again, if he really didn’t want the company he would have gone to his father’s bakery.

An equally familiar chakra in the hall pulled her away from the window, heading back through the kitchen as the lock clicked open. Wards parted to let Raidou step through, looking tired, battered, but otherwise whole. 

Long practice let her identify the collection of scratches at his hairline as the marks of a broken mask digging into the skin, someone, likely Genma himself, had healed the broken nose that had probably come with the injury. ANBU’s fearsome quartermaster was going to skin him for losing another mask.

There were the shadows of exhaustion under his eyes and bruises on his knuckles but he still looked at her like she was the best thing he’d seen in a long time. Dropping his bag by the door he reached out and she let him tow her into the circle of his arms. Immediately she was enfolded in his warmth, he still smelled like the barracks shower soap, he must have run out of Tousaki’s fancy kind.

“Hi.” he said quietly, kissing her hair. “I’m home.”

“Welcome back.” she said, wrapping her arms around him in return. No bandages hidden under his worn t-shirt this time, that was a relief. Then again, she would have had word if either of them were with the medics, one of the advantages of them being the worst kept secret in ANBU.

When he held her for an extra moment she knew for sure it had been a bad mission, she spared a moment to hope both teams had made it back relatively intact. She gave him an extra squeeze to remind him she was there. He sighed, sounding utterly exhausted but shifted back enough to look at her. “Genma left before I did.” He said, in a tone that made it a question.

She freed one hand to point upward. “He’s smoking.”

Raidou sighed again, shoulders slumping.

“How bad was it?” she asked.

“One of his rookies almost died.” Raidou grimaced, “We all thought we were going to lose her when he was working on her. She… asked him for the mercy blow but he pulled her back at the last moment.”

Kurenai nodded, understanding. “Did he drain himself doing it?”

“Of course he did. Passed out on mission,” Raidou quirked a smile that was a pale imitation of the expression she knew and loved, “he owes the Fainting Jar 5,000 ryuo.”

She did her best to match his effort with a smile of her own. “Between him and Kakashi we’ll have enough saved for an onsen trip soon.”

One of his board hands cupped her cheek, “That would be nice.”

Leaning into the warmth of his skin she found her next smile came easier and she leaned up to kiss him properly. When they both pulled back by unspoken agreement they laced hands and headed back through the kitchen.

Dango glared at them for disturbing him as they broke apart so Kurenai could open the window the rest of the way to accommodate Raidou’s broad shoulders. 

With chakra climbing up to the roof was no difficult task but when she swung herself up onto the tiles the sight that greeted her made her pause.

Genma sat on the slanted roof with his elbows propped on his knees, head bowed so the fall of his undone hair shadowed his face. His cigarette was held loosely between his fingers, from the fall of the ash between his boots he’d forgotten about it and let it burn down without taking more than a drag or two.

Already Raidou was slotting himself behind him, knees to either side of his legs, leaning forward to rest his chin on his shoulder. She moved forward to kneel in front of him, reaching out to pull the butt from his fingers and put it out on the titles. The movement brought her low enough to see his face and she had to quell the urge to wince.

Genma’s eyes, usually so expressive were blank, he stared down at her like he didn’t even see her. If the bags under Raidou’s eyes were deep his were vast, he had that slightly off color look he always got with chakra exhaustion, pale and scraped thin. Now that she was looking properly his chakra was down to guttering flames, not even a night’s rest enough to bring it back to full strength.

She twined her fingers with his and brought his cold hands up so she could kiss his knuckles. The sensation made his blink, drawing him back from wherever he’d gone when he’d lit that cigarette instead of coming inside.

“Hi.” he said, in an unconscious echo of Raidou, but his voice rasped like a rusty gate. Crying always made him hoarse, she knew that well enough. He swallowed, throat clicking audibly, “Sorry.” he said.

Shifting forward she settled between his knees so she could wrap her arms around him from the front. He was caught between them, Raidou holding his back, her holding his front and somehow he was still too cold, reserves too low. She spared a fleeting moment to be glad they’d picked an apartment on the outskirts of the village, well out of the way of shinobi roof traffic.

Some moments just weren’t meant to be shared.

“You don’t have to apologize.” she said, hoping he heard everything else she meant with it. All the ‘We love you’, ‘ _ I _ love you’, ‘I’m sorry it was a bad mission’, and ‘I’m glad you came back’. “Welcome home.” she finally said.

He relaxed, dropping his head onto her shoulder. “I’m glad to be home.”

They stayed there, sitting on the roof for a while, the shadows growing long around them, the quiet sounds of the village below in the evening drifting up. It was only when Genma started to shiver in a growing cold that they headed inside, pulling Genma inside between them. 

He went where they guided him, not protesting when Raidou helped him swap to warmer sleeping clothes and all but dropped him into bed. Kurenai had taken the time to also change, she slipped in on one side, Raidou on the other, bracketing him again. 

It didn’t take long for him to drift off, legs tangled with hers, Raidou close to his back. They talked in low voices over Genma’s head as Raidou told her what he could do about the mission. That wasn’t much but it was enough for her to fill in the blanks and she anticipated some rather busy days interpreting the intel both teams had brought back.

Despite the fact that he wasn’t the one down to fumes it wasn’t long before Raidou eventually fell asleep too, his hand had found its way into her hair as they had talked, now even as he slept it was cradling her neck in a way she always found comforting.

She smiled at them, her boys, back here alive and as well as could be expected. This… this was enough. This was all she could ever want.


End file.
